The Zone
by paepaoe
Summary: "A stalker's life was full of adrenaline and wonders, of loneliness and misery, of death and horror, mixed together in the maelstrom of madness that is the Zone." It shares a handful of similarities to the world of Equestria and the life of it's ponies, but practically they could not be futher apart.
1. Part 1: The Forest

**PART 1**

 **The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, March 2013, Somewhere South of Chernobyl NPP**

Hiker was a stalker. A scavenger, a trespasser, an adventurer, a loner, a killer, an explorer, and a robber. He had been for almost eight months. His coming from the 'outside', as it was known, was like the start of a new life. The outside held nothing for him, just misery. In his time as a stalker, he had seen the re-exploration of the Zone after the second emission, the driving out of Freedom from the Dark Valley. How he remembered that fateful night. The bandits, reformed under a ruthless upstart Borov, swarmed into the Valley, catching Freedom with their pants down. He was nearby at the time, taking one of his treks across the Zone, close enough to hear the frantic radio chatter of Ashot and most of Freedom's men being gunned down as they slept by the bandits, and of Yar and Lukash leading the survivors out of the base, on an exodus through the night, over kilometers through the deadly wastelands and forests.

He had seen the time when Strelok, one of the few 'Marked Ones', left on his fateful trip to the NPP. A long time ago, he saw him in the flesh once. He was a cold man, his mind obviously disturbed by the machinations of the Zone. But that was another story, to be shared over vodka round the fire. Like all in the Zone, his outside name meant nothing, and all stalkers take new personalities as they enter the Zone. Hiker was an apt name, given to him by a grizzled, now dead veteran, who he'd led to safety through the zombie-infested Yantar.

He wandered through the Zone, taking routes through the abandoned, uncharted areas, going deeper into places than many wished to travel. He had been across the Zone many times, he knew the Cordon, the Garbage, the Agroprom, the Duty controlled wildlands of the Rostok factory complex and the swamps around Yantar like the back of his hand. These places were no strangers to Stalkers, and they were subdued and tamed over the years of occupation. Yet he had wandered roads and paths beyond the safe southern reaches of the Zone. He was one of few to claim to have been to the northern areas of Zaton and Yanov station, and returned. Few also ranged past the army warehouses, his current location. The Freedom base in the abandoned army base was the last bastion of any semblance of civilization in the Zone, and was the last stop on the famous road that led all the way from the edge of the Zone, at the Cordon, directly north, all the way the Chernobyl NPP itself. It was on this road that his current path led him, for the time being. To go too far meant death, even with the destruction of the Brain Scorcher by Strelok some months previously. The Monolith faction, still very much alive, were in resurgence after the bloodshed of the scramble to the center after the Scorcher went down. The numbers of Duty, Freedom and Military men 'possessed' by the Monolith was scary to even consider.

Pondering over, he rose from his dozing by the small hut nearby the defenses at the Barrier, and began heading down from the low rise. Checking his gear, he set off into the dark, dead woodland in the gorge that led north, along the NPP road. Like many experienced stalkers with a penchant for artifact hunting, he wore a SEVA suit, worn and battered from extended use, Despite the wear, it offered the best radiological and environmental protection of anything but an exoskeleton. Over it however, he wore a long raincoat, similar to the type worn by bandit leaders, dyed with camouflage patterns, with his rucksack slung over his back. While his apparel signaled him as a veteran of of the Zone, his armaments did the opposite. All he carried was a compact sawn-off pump-action shotgun, rusty from wear, and his old self-modified AK74m, shortened, lightened and silenced for prolonged use outdoors. It was practically a pea shooter compared to the powerful NATO assault rifles favored by the Freedom patrols and Exoskeleton-clad Loners deeper into the Zone. However, they would be breaking and misfiring after 2 weeks use, and when deep in the Zone, repair tools and skills for the shiny expensive western guns were few and far between.

As the hours passed, the dead trees stopped, and the first signs that this used to be Monolith territory became apparent. On either side of the road lay their traditional warning signs, long dead stalkers, impaled on stakes, mutilated and decaying. Hiker paid them no notice. Sights like this were grimly common the deeper one went into the Zone, as those seeking the center met increasingly grisly ends at the hands of the mutants or the Monolith fanatic nut-jobs. This entrance to this hilly, wooded valley that lay up ahead was deserted. As he reached the end of the gorge, the sight before him was common in the Zone. Ahead lay twisted, rotten, dead trees, covered in moss and lichen, surrounding the concreted road leading north, littered with debris from the original extraction and clean up in '86.

Starting down the road, he picked his way through the abandoned vehicles and piles of junk and rubble, searching for booty. All around old steel manufacturing parts and girders jutted out of the piles, resting everything from old fridges to army lock-boxes. Clambering up the piles of Soviet trash, he spied a long wooden stock and gun mechanism protruding, masked by old steel frames. Lying on his front, he tugged on it, to no avail. After struggling silently for a moment, he clambered up, putting his feet either side of it, yanking it hard.

Suddenly, a deafening crack broke the silence, as a bullet ricocheted off a metal strut barely a foot away. Another rang out as he fell back in shock. The bullet just caught his left arm, spinning him forcibly off the pile. Ears ringing, clutching his wounded arm in agony, Hiker stumbled and crawled. Stopping after a meter or so, he lay on the floor, taking it all in. Ambush. Sniper. Shot. Bleeding. He looked down, blood was emanating through a gash in his coat, pouring out thickly.

From experience, he dug out an antiseptic bandage, gasping in agony as he pulled up his sleeve to apply it. The bullet had hit just above the elbow, ripping through the muscle and maybe even smashing through part of the bone. Then he realized just what deep shit he was in. A monotone chant came nearer and nearer, over and over:

"All hail the Monolith. Scourge the Zone of the disbelievers of the Monolith. All hail the Monolith. Give strength to the preservers of the Monolith. All hail the Monolith..."

The Monolithians on patrol were here, and now coming to kill him with all the tenacity and ferocity of rabid dogs. Stumbling to his feet, he ran, crying with pain, as fast as he could for the tree line on the side of the road. As he felt grass under his feet, he heard the chatter of machine guns open up behind him, firing full auto in a barrage of lead. Dashing through the trees, almost bent double, he saw splinters and chips flying from bullet impacts around him. The forces of the Monolith were not known for precision or tactics, but the application of sheer indomitable force.

As the sound of guns dropped off, and the fanatics went to find more prey, he continued running. His Geiger counter was clicking frantically as he passed sections of piping from the long, snaking pipeline running perpendicular to the road, marking the old unofficial boundary of the Brain Scorcher. Thankfully it was long turned off, yet the woods were still full of haunted beasts that had escaped their dark abodes deep within the Red Forest. Every so often, he heard a bark or a snarl, pushing him on further west, deep into the wilderness of the Zone.

When the immediate danger stopped, he almost collapsed to the ground. His arm was slowly losing blood, his legs were tired, his stomach was rumbling, and light was beginning to fade. Above the boughs of the trees, the six great antennae that gave the Radar it's name were visible to the north. To the west, the trees grew darker and the leaves redder, leading to the Red Forest. After re-applying a bandage, he cut down a few branches, and started a small fire to cook up a pie tin from his sack. For an hour, he sat at peace, tending to his wounds, and hungrily wolfing down his dinner. He would need the energy in the coming night.

The greatest horror of the Zone is the night. At night, the nocturnal mutants and beasts replace the diurnal to prowl for food. Though the number of dogs, boars and fleshes drops, more terrible things replace them. Snorks and other worse creatures that are sensitive to the light of day go rabid at night, hunting in packs, especially in the Red Forest, and surrounding swamps and woods of the Yantar and Radar. Without a large group, one cannot camp safely in the wilderness of the Zone.

Yet, the nights in the Zone hold a different terror. The further into the Zone you venture, it's insidious low level psy-emissions play on your conscience, in ways not even understood by the scientists doing field research on it from their bunker in Yantar. This field, over time, they think may cause schizophrenia and psychosis or other such illnesses, and many a stalker has gone crazy deep in the Zone, by not returning to the relative safety of the southern areas. These emissions also cause nightmares. Nightmares so bad that it is not unheard of for stalkers to die of heart failure in their sleep, from fear alone. The only protection is a Faraday cage, leading to the legend of always sleeping with one's head in a bucket when in the Zone.

As the sun set, Hiker turned on his SEVA suit's basic night-vision system, turning the world into fuzzy shades of green. He set off west, towards the setting sun, his USP handgun in his hand. For over an hour, he walked, listening attentively to the click of his Geiger counter, skirting the invisible radiation pockets and stray gravitational anomalies. As the hours and kilometers passed, the forest seemed subdued, almost dead of life in the murky moonlight. He checked his PDA, looking at the map uploaded onto it. Maybe a kilometer remained till he reached the central body of the Red Forest, with its dark, oppressive glades that were deprived of light even during the day.

Suddenly, he heard snarls and groans over the steady click of his detector. He saw motion in the dark bushes, as something moved towards him. Slamming on his head-torch in fear, he saw nothing, just the waving and shaking of the bushes in the wind. Yet the snarling was still coming closer. And the air in the forest was still and lifeless, insulated from gusts. He took a step back, watching the rustling approach nearer and nearer, closer and closer. With sudden roar, the foliage in front of him exploded, revealing nothing. Apart from two yellow dots suspended in mid-air.

Reflexively, he brought up his pistol, firing it into the stomach of the materializing Bloodsucker leaping at him, interrupting it's charge as it collided with him. Scrambling frantically, he leapt to his feet, and bolted. Sprinting as fast as he could, he dashed through the trees, ignoring the warning clicks. listening only to the sound of the beast chasing him. He ran and ran, until a stray root in the treacherous dark intervened. He crashed face first into the dirt, sprawled on his front. He rolled onto his back, pulling the shotgun strapped to his thigh from its straps. Lying on the floor, holding his old pump action shakily, he waited for his hunter. Silence reigned, until he heard the grim rustle of footsteps.

The Bloodsucker, its invisibility ruined by the bloody hole in its torso, staggered towards him. The yellow eyes of the mutated humanoid looked almost pleading as he emptied buckshot into them. Lowering his shotgun, he took in his situation. He was in the Red Forest proper now, somewhere near the center. His suit was ruptured in a few places, not to mention his wounded arm, and he must be bruised and cut all over. To top it all off, his AK74 had been lost in the struggle, and he had sprained an ankle. He was in serious danger now, all it would take to finish him off would be a pack of dogs, or a snork or two.

Unsure of his direction or location, he started to limp towards an area of trees lit up more by the moonlight than the rest. As he neared it, the trees began to stop altogether, and he reached a place he had only heard of in tales and stories. Before him was a circular clearing, easily 100 meters across, lit up by the waxing moon in the cloudy night sky. In the center of it, huge tendrils of earth stretched up to the sky, shaped by the huge swirling and shifting anomaly at their core, curling them around it.

This was the Claw anomaly, one of the largest single anomalies in the Zone. It lay almost unreachable in deep in the forest, and only a handful of stalkers had ever seen it and returned alive. He approached, gazing at the huge claws reaching for the sky, and rested by some crates and fire pits of long abandoned stalker camp, taking in heat from the copious burner anomalies in the base of the claw. Strewn around it, long, thick bones lay old and chewed. By their size, they must have belonged to a pseudogiant. Gulping down some vodka to dull the pain, his eyes began to close and his breathing slowed as he came down from the adrenaline of the past hour...

Jerking awake, Hiker's eyes smarted at the watery sunlight peeping through reddish clouds pouring into the clearing as a sharp beep rang his eyes. Fumbling for his PDA, a radio transmission started to play from the speakers: " _What are you doing sleeping out there stalker? It's not safe. My name's Forester. I used to be the caretaker of these woods decades ago, and now I look after those few guests I have here. You won't find any help nearby, all the roads to this part of the forest were blocked by the third great emission, you're only the second stalker ever to reach it afterwards. Frankly, I'm amazed you got through to the Claw. To reach my tower at the edge of the forest, you'll need to go north about a kilometer, following the animal track. Eventually, you should find an old tank. Don't ask me how it got there. On top of that, there's a space anomaly. Jump into that and you should be safe. You won't be able to contact me, the woods break up the signal awfully. If all goes well, I'll see you in a few hours._ "

Hiker sat stunned, digesting the instructions this 'Forester' had given him. The track he meant was fairy apparent. Maybe he would get out of these woods faster than he planned. Spurred on by the prospect of the possibility of hot food and a warm bed, he scooped up his sack, and inspected his arm. As he worked, rain began to fall, and the clouds became noticeably thicker and redder every passing minute. Thankfully the sniper had missed the joint, and only taken a lump of flesh instead. Even so, it would take weeks to heal fully without a medic back a faction base looking at it. Testing his weight on his sprained leg, he set off down the trail, leaving the sunlight behind, as his PDA bleeped into life again.

" _Stalker, run for the space anomaly! There's an emission inbound! Run!_ " Looking to his right, the base of the clouds were a deep blood red, moving closer and closer, as wind gusted through the trees. Limping in a half-jog, Hiker stumbled as fast as he could, teeth gritted with the pain in his leg. Pushing on through the woods, he staggered over a low rise. The wind picked up, as irradiated dust set off his radiation meter, making the slow click grow with an ominous urgency. As a large silhouette in the dark glade ahead came into view, the slow rumble of the emission shook the ground, and a low roar built up and up, hiding his Geiger counter. Heaving himself up onto the scarred battle-tank, he crawled towards the wildly fluctuation space anomaly above it. Looking at the sky a final time, he saw the great red wall of deadly roiling clouds that marked the peak coming ever closer, almost upon him. He reached into the ball of shimmering air above him,

Everything went white.


	2. Into Equestria

**Equestria, 3 Years after the defeat of Nightmare Moon, Deep in the Everfree Forest**

Hiker awoke. A blue sky filled his eyes, ringed with tall green trees. Everything looked peaceful. He lay on his back, savouring the welcome rest after his ordeal in the Red Forest. The air felt cleaner here, invigorating his body. He knew instinctively that he was safe.

Sitting up, resting on his sack, he pulled out his PDA. All it showed was static. He pressed some buttons, causing it to fizz and hum, apparently completely fried by the Space Anomaly. Gathering his thoughts, he looked around him, trying to spot a landmark. He saw nothing he recognised. No NPP, no towering antennae from the old Brain Scorcher facility on the horizon. Both were a few kilometers away, and both were a constant sight near the center of the Zone. Where the hell had Forester's anomaly led him?

He went through his supplies. Bread, sausage and vodka, check. Shotgun shells, check. Medical supplies and anti-rad meds, check. Two boxes of 5.45x39 ammo, check. PDA, check. Two clips for his USP, check. Sleeping bag, check. Spare vest and boxers, check. Compass, check. Wrenched, Moonlight and Gravi artifacts, check. 2 F1 grenades, check. Veles detector, check. He had enough kit to last a few days at least, though his AK would be sorely missed. With only a handgun and a sawn-off pump action, he would be screwed beyond belief in a firefight. That didn't seem to be a problem, thankfully. He wasn't even sure if it really was the Zone. The inbuilt Geiger counter in his Veles read less than 8 counts. He had had bigger readings in Sidorovich's bunker. Readings that low were impossible in the Zone. That was the final proof. He wasn't in the Zone. He was in pine forest, somewhere, possibly anywhere in the entire bloody world. It was sunny. That was the extent of his knowledge. He screamed in frustration at this place, his life, the Zone, at the Forester, at the anomaly that took him here, fuming violently, until his profanity filled rant slowly came to an end. He was powerless, manipulated by cruel fate. His tired and depressed mind came up with the only solution. All he could do is to walk and hope not to starve out here.

Hours passed in the forest. The trees grew twisted and gnarled, not unlike those of the Zone. What he would give to be back there, in his element. It was a long-standing paradox, why stalkers remained in the man-made hell of the Zone. Surely no sane man would choose to live in such a place. Yet still, all those who could survive in the Zone were always drawn back to it, like flies to honey. It was the thrill of complete freedom, no dull drudgery, no boredom, no normal life. A stalker's life was full of adrenaline and wonders, of loneliness and misery, of death and horror, mixed together in the maelstrom of madness that is the Zone.

He felt out of place in this comparatively idyllic forest, full of strange plants and trees. many vaguely familiar, but none he truly recognised. As the strange sights passed his eyes, the reality began to sink in how far from his deadly home he was. Everything just looked so alien, so different, that he felt his longing for the irradiated wastes return as strong as ever. Until his was reverie interrupted by the strange hut standing in front of him. It seemed to be made from the same twisted wood as the trees around him, it cast an odd sight, adorned with almost-African tribal masks and totems. Walking round it, he realised that it was gown, not made, a carved out tree, not a wood-clad hut. His whole journey so far since the anomaly could be summed up by the words "What the fuck." Entering through the door, at least 3 feet too short for him, he found himself in a spacious, low-roofed room, complete with iron stove, odd voodoo masks, strange herbs and bottles of even stranger liquids, a chair and tables sized perfectly for children, and what looked for all the world like a chemistry set.

Settling himself into the deserted tree-house, he prepared for a night in this alien place. He lay against a wall in his sleeping bag, watching the calming patterns of his Moonlight artifact glow in fading evening light, like a soft blue sun, shifting and swirling. He was careful to keep the Wrenched next to him to cleanse the deadly powerful radiation given off by the beautiful blue Moonlight. Removing it back into the foil-wrapped bag he kept it in, he lay there, at peace for once in his life, no longer on the run, or in danger of death. He began to doze off in his warm sleeping bag...

"AAAGGGHHHH!"

For once in his life, he was woken by a girly scream from next to him. Slamming upright, he fumbled for his USP and held it shakily at the 'thing' standing before it. For all the world, it looked like a small, mutated Zebra with a bulbous head and large eyes, with pupils dilated in shock at obviously seeing him sleeping its house. It was wearing all sorts trinkets and charms, looking for all the world like some strange shaman. As the adrenaline started to get to work hurrying his thought processes, he wondered how a small mutated Zebra would have a house, not only furnished, but also complete with herbal drug factory.

His mind collapsed. All he had seen, all the people he had watched die, all those he killed, all the times he had escaped death himself, all the nature defying sights of the Zone, all the time spent in the brain-frying psy-emissions, all of that, and now this fantasy stuff he was witnessing right now sent him over the edge. What could he do? The world he lived in was beyond crazy, all he wanted was escape from it all. He raised the gun to his mouth, finger on the trigger...

"Who are you, strange creature in my abode, carrying such a strange load-"

In shock at watching speak , he pulled the trigger, firing the high-calibre .45 round through his cheek, blasting apart his jaw. All he made out through haze of pain, before blood loss took him, was the Zebra, a shocked and concerned look on her face, forcing a cold liquid down his throat, holding bandages to his ruined face.

His eyes opened. The ceiling before him was white. Looking to the side, he saw a machine bleeping away, next to the bed he was in. Surrounding the bed were light green curtains. He was in a hospital. How? Was everything a dream? The mysterious Space Anomaly? But there were no hospitals anywhere near the Zone...

How was it possible? Lifting up his hand weakly, he touched his face. Everything felt numb and smooth, until he found a stitch over a large scar, and another, and another. Then what if it was real, with the taking mutant, and the strange hut? How was that possible? He didn't know what to think. He barely had the energy to move, let alone see what was happening. Thankfully someone had saved him. He should be dead, he knew it

Delving deep into the soft bed, the first he had slept in for months, he continued his observation of the room. All his kit, weapons, SEVA suit and rucksack included, were missing. That wasn't surprising. However, his legs were tucked up, resting at the bottom edge of the bed. Why was it so short? Putting that matter to one side, he looked back at the strange machine bleeping his pulse, with lights on and off for all sorts of readings and displays. It had a glowing antennae atop it. The only things he recognised were several small buttons marked 'On/Off', 'Call Nurse' and 'Calibrate for Patient'. He slowly pushed 'Call Nurse'. The machine bleeped in approval. Hopefully he would get some answers for his many questions. Hearing hurried footsteps and chatter, he looked up, watching the nurse enter through the curtains.

It was another one of those things. This time though, it was white all over, with red hair, a unicorn horn on it's head and a nurse's uniform. If he wasn't so shocked and scared, he would have laughed at the strange-looking thing stood before him, that bore most resemblance to some equine creature.

"What..." he croaked out through his mutilated face and mouth.

"You speak?" The creature looked just as shocked and puzzled as he felt. "I... umm, am Nurse Redheart. Is there anything you... want or need?" Hiker coughed and choked, trying to get out a word, as the nurse continued. "Well, we managed to fix your jaw and cheek, though you've now got yourself a large scar. Serves you right for playing with that firework device you had. After Doctor Splint finished regenerating the tissues, we had to use stitches I'm afraid. Even these modern wound regeneration spells can only do so much. Your forehoof-, wait, er, arm, ah that's it! We patched up your arm, and thankfully that we could fully repair. There isn't even a scar. Now you just have the normal full body repair incantations to fix up all those nasty cuts and bruises."

He didn't know what to say, even if he could. A unicorn had lectured him on how he was being fixed with spells. That hurt just thinking about, even the mysteries Zone made more sense. He just sat there staring and breathing heavily.

"Tell you what, I'll just give you some more painkiller, and let you sleep it all off..."

It's horn glowed, and the antennae shined brighter than before. As he sat, completely stumped by all that had happened, he felt the painkillers start to sedate him, make him feel sleepy...

When Hiker woke, his eyes were met by soft candlelight glowing across his bed. Just by stretching and moving, he felt better, though a dull ache filled his mouth. Going over what he remembered of what the thing said. Apparently he was healed with magic, a fact confirmed by that the strange antennae on the machine next to him was still glowing. Flexing his arms, he lifted his left up to assess his wound. Nothing. True to its word, the thing was right that there wasn't even a scar. He could barely make out any sign of the bullet wound, unless this was one long hallucination. Sighing, he had to decide what to do next. The presence of the candle obviously meant that it was night-time, and he would have to retrieve his gear if he wanted to escape this fantastical world. The problem was that he had no idea how to return to the location of the anomaly to escape.

He decided to act. Pushing the 'Off' button, he slipped out of the bed onto his feet, still slightly sore from the kilometers of walking in the last few days. It was only then he realised he was stark naked.

"Fuck."

The creatures had apparently nothing to fit something of his shape, and the nurse-thing wasn't exactly wearing much. This could make things awkward. He slowly peered through a gap in the curtains around his bed. He was in an otherwise dark empty room, with a door at least 2 feet too short for him on the opposite side. Pushing through, he padded silently up to the door. Pressing his ears up to it, he listened.

"Clack clack. Clack clack clack clack clack..."

He peered down through the observation window, watching another unicorn, wearing a doctor's lab coat, walk by. Following it along, it disappeared into another, lit up, room. Carefully pushing the door ajar, he slipped out, keeping an eye on the room the doctor entered. Quickly making his way along the corridor, he turned into another, looking for signs. None were helpful, just wards with horse-pun names. Crossing the hall, to a window, he saw the ground a way below him, too far to jump. Wandering further, keeping silent, he saw a sign for the stairs. Walking into the stairwell, lit with small, blue-flamed torches, he went down and down, looking at the signs for each floor: "Magical Ailments", "Royal Princess Wards", "Operating Theatre", "Reception, A&E and Storerooms". Storerooms, that was what he needed. Looking through the window in the small door however, it was clear this whole floor was lit, and he could hear something muttering in the distance, in the direction of the Reception. Pushing through, he walked quickly along the back corridors, avoiding the reception, following the signs for the stores. Rounding the corner, he saw one of the creatures, walking towards the storeroom entrance, thankfully facing the opposite direction. Watching move to enter, he saw it draw out keys.

"Damn, keys, I can never remember which one of you opens what."

Something felt amiss, as if the sight was trying to tell him something. Suddenly, it dawned on him that the door would lock him out, and his things in. That would not be good. Clambering forward on all fours, as quietly as possible, he drew up behind the tired thing, his sounds hidden by the jangling of it's key in the lock. Seeing his only chance, he clasped his arm round its neck, covering its muzzle with his other. Wrenching and pulling, he writhed as the shocked thing struggled in his grasp, resisting his attack. In silence he fought it, trying to control it's surprising strength. With a wrench, it broke free for a second, managing a small cry before Hiker clamped back on, twisted with all his might, snapping it's neck. Pulling it inside the unlocked door, he dumped the corpse in a corner, hurrying to find what he needed before one of the creatures noticed it's disappearance. Searching through shelves of strangely shaped clothes and various miscellaneous items, he found what he wanted: his SEVA suit, USP, shotgun and rucksack, left in a big metal deposit box in a corner.

Suiting up, he grabbed his sack, digging out a silencer to fit his USP and screwed it on. Slinging his pack onto his back, and strapping his shotgun to his thigh, he was set, Holding his pistol ready in front of him, he crept back to the doorway, taking care to leave the mutant's corpse out of sight. Almost everything had gone as planned, apart from one thing. His getaway. The red light of dawn was shining through the windows, showing a town outside surrounding the hospital, starting to wake up.

Surely they must have noticed his absence by now, and it would only be so long before they found him if he stayed. Checking that nothing was watching, he pulled out his shotgun, and swung it by the barrel smashing through a window. The SMASH of the glass shattering destroyed the calm of the early morning town, resonating through the widely spaced houses that resembled something out of a fantasy novel in their appearance. That would surely have woken them all up now.

Shaking the shards of glass from him, he vaulted through the wide-open window, and sprinted through the back alleys, passing all sorts of strange and wonderful buildings, thanking the weight reducing effects of the Gravi in his webbing with every step. The winding streets led him on and on, as he ran for his life through the idyllic fantasy village, puffing and gasping through gritted teeth for air. As he began to slow, he heard the clamour of the mutants waking to investigate more and more, converging on him. The hospital was some way away now, and ahead of him he could see a tall, majestic oak poking above the rooftops. He was close to freedom. As he passed an opening into a large high street to his left, he turned, and saw-

"HEY, WHERE D'YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!"

A tan mutant, wearing an out-of-place cowboy hat, hurling a lasso at him. This world was getting stranger by the minute. It wrapped snugly round his head and arm, slamming him into the floor. Winded, yet still thrumming with adrenaline, he ripped out his pistol, and fired wildly. Most of the shots went wide, he wasn't a crack-shot at the best of times, yet one still found it's mark, the high calibre round impacting in its shoulder, knocking it to the ground.

Breathing heavily, he fumbled with the ropes as he scrambled up, trying desperately to escape. Looking back, he saw a large book, enveloped by a purple-pink glow, fly through the air at his head, slamming his vision into darkness once more.


	3. Q&A

When Hiker woke, he was bound to a chair in a circular hall, surrounded by some kind of purple force-field. Standing in front of him were at least 20 of the equine mutants, looking angry, to say the least. Their faces ranged from the fear of the yellow one with pink hair, the confusion of the white one with shining purple locks, to pure the anger and hatred the two walking towards him.

The first of them, purple all over, powering the purple shield with her magic, approached him first, the look in her eyes emanating power and anger, yet also disappointment, coming as close as it's magical shield would allow.

Drawing in breath, it raged:

"Who are you, you animal, to kill and wound innocent ponies on a whim? Of all the creatures of the Everfree Forest, you are one of the most despicable. I know you can understand me, Nurse Redheart told me you spoke Equestrian. Do you like killing ponies, since you obviously don't eat us? Applejack, the one you fired your firework-weapon at, is wounded in hospital, and the family of the janitor you killed are distraught! Explain yourself!"

Spitting blood from the split lip where the book had hit him, he around, dazed, trying to take in what this 'pony' had said. It was obvious now though, thinking back over what he had seen, that this was an advanced, sentient civilization, not just beasts like those in the Zone. The similarities were scary to think about. How were they speaking English, or at all for that matter? How come their houses, their hospital, their (occasional) clothes, and even their appearance resembled things back on Earth, as this couldn't be anywhere on Earth. Looking back up at the fuming unicorn, he replied:

"I'm not from this 'Everfree Forest'. I'm not even from you're world, or whatever this is. I'm a human, not some animal. What are you, anyway? I didn't want to come here."

"Then why did you kill an innocent pony? That makes you an animal in my book!"

"I... I did it because... "

He realised the truth, that he had no real reason, other than it suited his needs. It wasn't even really necessary. He could have just stayed in his hospital bed, and come to terms with this place quietly and peacefully. What he did was no different to killing an innocent person in cold blood. He mulled it over, silently trying to justify what he did, and failing.

"You understand?"

The purple pony was looking down at him, aware of his inner turmoil.

Hiker nodded.

"That's a start, but I'm going to make sure you talk to the Princess about this. You don't seem at all stable, considering your suicide attempt. However, I want to find a few things out first.

If you say you're not 'from this world', then where are you from? It's too much of a coincidence that you speak Equestrian, and have a fairly normal body shape."

Her horn lit up further, and a magical cloud floated around his body, probing and passing through him. He shuddered dully at the strange sensation. He truly felt like shit. His whole life was collapsing around him. He barely paid attention to the unicorn, which was going from being angry to puzzled at their impossible similarity.

"Your biology resembles ours almost entirely! Most organs are almost identical, just different sizes, even your brain. How is this even possible? Hmm, your digestive system indicates you eat both meat and plants, is this true?"

"Yeah"

"Would you eat a pony?" She said warily, afraid for his response.

"I wouldn't, no"

She looked visibly happier at that, at least.

"So, this place you come from, tell me about it."

This would be a tall order. How do you sum up humanity in anything less than an encyclopaedia?

"I am a human, a species evolved from monkeys. Unlike you, in our world, magic is pure fantasy; all of our progress as a species has been through technology. Humans generally live for around 70 years, though we peak between 20 and 30."

"Interesting, but what about civilization? Do you act like you did here back at home too?" She still looked seriously angry.

"Well, throughout the entire history of world, we are moderately peaceful, civilized creatures, our lives dictated by order and stability, when times are good. Problems come however when different civilizations start to bicker and fight, or crazy, radical people get power, and from there, well, things get nasty..."

He gave a quick summary of the 20th century, stopping the purple pony from interrupting whenever he brought up a more sensitive topic, especially the world wars. As he went on, the sheer amount of bloodshed and technological advance astounded the pony, putting her into almost disbelief at the invention of the computer, and the long, dark time of the USSR. Eventually, he ran out of vague history knowledge to remember from his troubled times in school.

The pony sat there, mouth agape, stunned at human history.

"But, how do you even discover all these things when you're too busy annihilating each other in ever more brutal ways? And some of the things, like those psychopaths Hitler and Stalin, are beyond belief. How is possible for them to kill millions of humans in just a few years? If you told the truth, both have killed more than the total population of Equestria. How do you consider yourself peaceful after things like that? You don't seem like good evidence to the contrary."

"War is what drives technology. It works as a catalyst, considering many of our advances in medicine came from wars. Anyway, I come from a lawless and deadly place called the Zone, an irradiated area around an old nuclear power station that went through meltdown, spewing its radiation into the area around it. It's full of scientific wonders, horrifically mutated creatures, all sorts of strange phenomena caused by the radiation, and the scum of the human race. No government or army can control what goes in its wastes. It is a place of anarchy and daily death and pain, and all must kill to survive there; no matter how moral you are when you enter, the Zone changes you, it makes you tougher, yet also slowly removes all humanity and sanity from those that reside there. I don't regret killing all the people who have tried to kill me."

The pony looked disgusted with him, finding the idea of the violence of the Zone abhorrent.

"All I want is to go home. I hate me being here more than you do. I suppose you can do something with your fancy magic about it?"

"No, I can't. Magic can't do everything, only the Princess would be able to send you back, I expect. I'll try to contact her to sort this out, and talk some morality into you, but you're here until she arrives."

The purple one walked out, accompanied by most of the crowd, all of whom were muttering in hushed whispers, gossiping about the crazy alien in their hall. The only one remaining one was the blue one, with rainbow-coloured hair, trying to look menacing as she guarded him.

"So, pony, are you planning on holding me here indefinitely?"

"Shut up."

He sighed, this was rapidly turning into worse than captivity by bandits. At least they left you in a cell, not tied down and under constant guard. He sat there dejectedly. What else could he do, except await fate?

* * *

After what he guessed was a few hours, a tall white pony, with both wings and horn, its fur shining and gleaming, with semi-transparent, multi-coloured floating hair walked in. The air around it radiated light, burning his eyes with its intensity. It was like the sun incarnate. On its head sat a crown. This must be the Princess. She was flanked by both the purple, stern pony and the cowboy-esque one he had shot, now seemingly healed. Both had packs on their backs. This whole situation gnawed at his mind, trying to tell him something.

The Princess spoke, in a voice that filled the room, cementing his attention on the majestic pony ahead of him.

"These two of my ponies are Twilight Sparkle, to whom you spoke earlier, and Applejack, the one you so unkindly shot yesterday. Rather than suffer for your crimes here, I hope you can learn to open your heart to these two. Having only being alerted to this 'dimension-hop' you made, yesterday, I have only now worked out how to send you back."

He exhaled a sigh of relief. Somehow, the Zone looked inviting from this perspective. The beginnings of a smile broke upon his face.

"However, since you are the first sentient thing to cross into Equestria in this way, Twilight and I agree we cannot pass up on this opportunity to study a culture totally alien to our own. Both Twilight and Applejack will accompany you back to your world, to study it, and teach you the magic of friendship, I hope."

Hiker looked at her, grinning, partly in shock at her words.

"You can't be serious. That would be a death sentence."

"I assure you I am, these ponies mean you no harm, and I expect you to help them adjust to being in your world."

"But..."

Her gaze was entrancing, both pleading and threatening at the same time, mentally forcing submission upon him. He broke under the pressure.

"Okay, I'll try."

"Thank you, this expedition means lots to me, Twilight and all of Equestria itself. The technology we could acquire and lessons we could learn from your race will be invaluable. Twilight knows how to perform a spell to return both of them to Equestria, and both are fully equipped, and able to defend themselves, I'm sure. My spell will return you to the place where you left your world, so you will at least arrive somewhere safe. They see no reason not to go now, as you apparently wish, so I wish all three of you the best of luck."

As her horn lit up, he knew instantly that two ponies, wearing only camping gear, and completely unarmed, would live around half an hour in the Zone. Should he really try to look out for them? Even with his protection, both would probably die. He felt cheated, having to care for these naïve ponies. Just something about the Princess' words, and the ponies' very nature made him feel seeped with guilt at the thought of leaving them to die. As the spell engulfed him, the sensation of falling asleep came over him.


	4. Ghost City

Hiker jerked and stumbled as he appeared on a concrete surface. Looking up, the red trees of the Red Forest surrounded him in the distance on all sides, and by the look of it, it was early evening, as the sun shined weakly just above the horizon. He appeared to be in some old entrance area to the forest, judging by the closed, rusted gates and tourist info board leading into the forest. He wouldn't be going in there anytime soon. Turning around, a tall brick tower stood undamaged behind him, surrounded by the junk of the Zone. He breathed in the bracing, cold air, savouring the moment.

His reverie was broken by a voice.

"So, uh, this is your world then? It looks kinda shabby tah me."

Looking around, it was Applejack talking, in an almost predictable American drawl. Both her and Twilight were staring at the ruined cars, rusted metal and derelict walls, all slowly being overtaken by the woods. Twilight spoke this time:

"How come all of this is ruined? Does no one look after this place?"

"This is the Zone, all of this was abandoned decades ago, and the weather and plants set to work making it their own, there's nothing anyone can really do."

"Where are we?" Twilight again. She seemed to have quite the thirst for knowledge.

"No idea. Not where I left from, that's certain. Also, please don't wander, you won't feel or see radiation pockets, and I would hate for you to die slowly and painfully from radiation sickness. Even a small dose, untreated will slowly degrade your body over time."

The ponies stayed silent, coming to terms with what they were getting into. The sudden chirping of his PDA rang through the evening air.

"Hey, Hiker, you made it out of the Space Bubble. You've been gone for days. I honestly thought the emission had caught you. You're one lucky bastard, you are. Apparently you're right outside my tower, so come inside and we'll have a chat over some vodka, you probably need it after a trek through the forest. I would come down to greet you myself, but I'm an old man, and the stairs get harder by the day."

Hiker wandered over to the door at the base of the tower, slowly opening it. Inside was brightly lit, illuminating a set of iron stair leading up to a single room above, and across from them was a small antechamber with lockers and sleeping rolls. He gestured for the ponies to come inside, letting them get comfortable on the old moth-eaten bedrolls. He ascended the stairs, entering the room.

An old, weather-beaten man sat in one corner, across from a small stove. All around the room hung the heads of all sorts of dangerous and rare mutants, from bloodsuckers to psy-dogs. This man was no slouch.

"Come in, have a seat. I've been dying to hear your tales of how you reached the forest, and got yourself out of that Space Bubble."

Forester handed him a vodka, pulling out a chair for him.

"It all began the day before I entered the Space Bubble, as I crossed the Barrier. I was heading north, searching for loot on the NPP road..."

They chatted for an hour or so, regaling his rough adventure on the way to the Red Forest. According to Forester, the roads to the forest had been closed since 2011, after a mercenary by the name of 'Scar' had pursued Strelok all the way into the power plant, triggering a massive emission, presumably the one that had made Strelok the infamous 'Marked One'. All the while though, the thought of trying to explain his impromptu visit to Equestria or whatever the ponies' land was daunted him. How would Forester react to his grudging companions? Eventually, he made up his mind. He had to tell him. He held the key of getting out of the Red Forest, and it would be impossible to get him and the ponies out without his help.

"So, Forester, how about I tell you about my time in the Space Bubble?"

"Go on young man, as I said, I would be very interested to hear how you escaped the looped space inside."

"What if I said that I was transported to a world of talking, magical horse-creatures?"

"Bullshit. The Zone has done some strange things to your mind, my friend."

"I'm deadly serious. I was even forced to take to back here with me, as their Princess, the one who returned me, wanted to research our world. They're downstairs."

Forester sat there speechless. Hiker called out loudly:

"Twilight and Applejack, can you come up here a second?"

A muted grumbling emanated from below. Hoofsteps echoed on the rickety stairs. The two ponies, looking alien with their garishly coloured coats walked into the room. Both they and Forester were shocked, scrambling away from each other.

"It's fine, neither of you are planning on hurting each other, I hope. Forester, meet Twilight Sparkle and Applejack. This is Forester, the old caretaker of these woods. He means you no harm."

They stared at each other for a moment, before Applejack warily made the first move.

"N... nice to meet you Mr. Forester"

"Likewise to you. Anyone's welcome in my old tower here. It's the safest place for miles."

Forester turned to Hiker,

"Shit, I didn't expect them to be real. What happened when you got stuck in their world?"

"I took it badly to say the least. Anyway, Twilight and Applejack, see if you can get some sleep. This might be the last chance for days."

The ponies trotted away, murmuring over their first interaction with another human.

"So, Hiker, what do you plan on next?"

"Getting out of here, probably. I don't particularly want to keep them so close the Red Forest, seeing how dangerous it is. Then again, where else is much safer for them?"

"Yeah, that's a good point. Though I'm too old to get you out of here myself. Since you won't be taking the route out you took in, I'll call a dear friend of mine, the only other guy who got here alive since the emission. Garry's his name; he brings me supplies every month. From what I've seen, he's the best guide in the Zone since Guide himself. Still, even he doesn't like the journey here."

"Why's that?"

"The only way he found was through an abandoned service tunnel Southwest of here, blocked up when Strelok fled from Scar. However, there's a long ventilation shaft, big enough to walk down, that leads out of here."

"Is that it?"

"Well, most of the other paths lead through the forest, and they're blocked by anomaly fields anyway. The only other ways out are South, along the road going through the Yantar factory."

"Not nice, I've been round the edge of it before, gave a headache anywhere within sight of it."

"Yeah, not nice at all. The only other over-land one is across the bridge at the entrance to the service tunnel, going into Limansk."

"Limansk? Never heard of it."

"It's an old town for workers at the local radar stations, though now I shudder to think what's there now. Scar, along with a whole faction went through Limansk to get to the NPP. Apparently, they had a full scale war going through there with the Monolithians, barely got through. Even those that did probably ended up in the Monolith themselves, after that emission. I wouldn't set a foot in that graveyard."

"So, the service tunnel it is then."

"That's it, leads straight into center of the city."

"Seriously, you want me to go through Pripyat?"

"That's the only way, son. I'm not forcing you, but even so I can't support four here forever."

"That's a lot to think on."

"Have a sleep, we'll decide in the morning."

Hiker had a difficult decision ahead of him. It was either go through the forests, and try to find the way in he took originally, that would almost certainly get one of the ponies wounded or killed, unprepared and inexperienced as they were. That, or lead them through Pripyat. He had only ever skirted round that ghost city, though it was enough to show that the tales were largely true. It was truly a ghost city, the streets were as dead as a graveyard. Yet looking harder, it revealed horrors. Even from nearly a mile away, looking through his binoculars, he could just about make out the hazy air disturbances of bloodsuckers hunting during broad daylight, bloodstains on another street all over the place, yet no signs of any remains or corpses and strange swirling, ethereal mists coming from one building. In the distance he had heard the indistinct sounds of a Monolith sermon. After seeing that, he had never wanted to return.

Between a trek through Pripyat and a trek through the Red Forest though, he chose Pripyat.

* * *

As light streamed in through cracks in the window shutters, he woke to the sound of chopping. Startled, he clambered from his sleeping roll, quickly descending the stairs and pushing the outside door open. Forester was a short distance away, felling a tree. He wandered over, stretching in the cool morning air, watching the red rays of dawn shine through the red boughs of the surrounding forest. Forester turned to him,

"You're awake. Give and old man a hand, will you?"

Hiker took over, hacking away until the trunk buckled. Together they started to pull it away by the trunk, into the open by a toolshed.

"I contacted Garry last night, before I went to sleep, he should be arriving fairly soon. Apparently the recent emission had some strange effects, which doesn't bode well for your departure I'm afraid. He should call when he reaches the end of the tunnel, and we'll start out to meet him then."

"What sort of effects?"

"He didn't say, that's what worries me. He's a hard man to scare, and must really worry him."

As they talked, Applejack and Twilight emerged from the tower, bearing their kit. They approached, and Twilight stubbornly demanded to know everything there was to know about the Zone.

"If me and Applejack are going to be safe here, then we need to know about all the creatures and natural hazards you warned us were so bad."

Hiker produced his PDA, pulling up a map of the Zone. Zooming closer onto the red blotch that was the Red Forest, he started,

"This is the part of Zone we are in now. To the north lies the city of Pripyat, and Chernobyl NPP itself. To the south lies Rostok, the Agroprom, the Cordon, Yantar and the Garbage, the safer areas that are more widely inhabited by stalkers. This area here, our location, is the Red Forest, renowned for its red plant life, caused by the dangerously high levels of radiation in the area."

"Radiation?" Twilight interjected.

"The gamma radiation from the radioactive particles ejected from the reactor at power plant when it went into meltdown. Normal amounts are harmless, but going into a highly radioactive area will do nasty things to your body, causing its cells to mutate or die, slowly killing it off from the inside. The problem with radiation is that it is, as I said, undetectable by all but a special device, which all stalkers carry, that clicks in the presence of radiation, a Geiger counter. I'll find one for each of you as soon as possible.'

While he spoke, Forester brought out Hiker's rucksack, along with all sorts of bits and pieces of stalker hardware, from basic detectors to food and ammunition.

"The radiation also causes the other natural hazards in the Zone, things called anomalies. According to the scientists at the bunker down south, when the rads build up in an area, they can be converted in some form of energy or something. No one really understands how they exist, just that there are a few distinct types, and most are activated by disturbing them. The most obvious are Electro anomalies, areas of high static electricity for some reason, that discharge into the victim. They appear as contorted blue lightning flashes in the active area. Those are some there."

He pointed to the old power-lines above them, wreathed in the electrostatic lightning.

"The next main ones are fire anomalies. They usually appear as an intense heat-haze above the ground in a small spot, they burst into flames if anything enters them. They are fairly easy to spot, if you have your wits about you.

After fire anomalies, chemical-based ones are the next most common. They only really occur in damp, wet places such as swamps, or underground. They usually take the form of a noxious greenish gas or slimy moss, and burn through armour and flesh nastily. Like fire and electro anomalies, they are pretty apparent to the observant.

The final, and worst kind are gravitational anomalies. They will quite literally rip you limb from limb, or crush you to a small ball with their extreme forces. Unfortunately, they will all suck you in quite readily, stopping you from sprinting past or jumping over them in an emergency. The fact that they are almost invisible is another problem. If you see the air rippling, as if it was water, or leaves and other debris being pulled from all directions in a vortex, then you've found a gravitational anomaly. I've seen a few people walk into them by accident in my time, just by not paying attention, and what came out wasn't pretty."

Those things look mighty bad, human. Why'd you people go so near them anyway? Seems stupid to me."

"Because, Applejack, only anomalies produce these." He pulled out two of his artifacts from his belt pouches, holding them in each hand. He handed the Wrenched to the confused pony first, then the Gravi.

"What the hay? I feel lighter all of a sudden!"

"Many artifacts have strange and wondrous properties, in this case, the brown lumpy one, called a Gravi, reduces gravitational field strength or something according to the scientists, letting you carry more. The problem is, is that most of them emit radiation, so you really need another, rarer type to clear it out to balance the effects."

Twilight, in her seemingly inexhaustible thirst for knowledge asked:

'What can all of these artifacts do then?"

"All sorts of things, from radiation reduction to resistance from things like fire and chemical burns, to accelerated healing and clotting. I don't have time to explain them all now, you need to know about the other danger of the Zone, its inhabitants.

All sorts of creatures can be found here, mutated by the radiation. The most common kinds are dogs, boars, and fleshes, god-knows what they were originally. They move around and hunt in packs, but thankfully don't actively hunt down humans to eat, though they will attack if they see you. As long as you keep a reasonable difference, you should be fine. There are worse things out there, but they're rare enough to leave for now."

"What about other humans? You said they don't get along with each other."

"Most don't. The two big groups, Duty and Freedom, shoot each other on sight. The mercenaries vary, some are hostile, others can be friendly, but all of them are ruthless. The bandits try to rob everyone and everything they see, and everyone else hates them for it, and the Monolithians, well, they kill everything that moves. Don't worry about them for the moment, the direction we're going, no stalker in their right mind dares to tread."

"Sounds like a right friendly place." said Applejack.

Forester approached.

"I hate to bring you little tutorial to an end, but we need to move soon. Hiker, here's some extra food and shotgun shells, you'll need them in Pripyat. For you ponies, I got you some old jackets to protect you from the elements, and basic anomaly and radiation detectors. Hopefully it'll all fit."

"Thank you, it sounds like we need them from what Hiker was saying."

"No problem my dear, Twilight was it? I don't need any of this old junk anymore anyway. We best be off."

Hiker stood up, following the Forester to the rusted old gate, leading into the woods, as the ponies struggled to don their coats and bags. Forester unlocked the gate, propping it open and started inside. As he passed the threshold into the forest, his very gait changed into that of a hunter, as he produced a small sawn-off from his jacket. It was clear he knew how to survive in this dark, dank, deadly place.

They quietly walked through the woods, in single file, with Forester leading the way around radiation spots by instinct, past occasional anomalies, Both he and Hiker had their shotguns at the ready, ears pricked to the distant growls and barks to the east. Thankfully, the journey was uneventful, if not awkward, as they had to take regular detours through bushes and over rocks to avoid the radiation. According to Forester, the mutants were less active this early in the morning. Soon enough, they spotted a yellow brick wall up ahead, with a large gap smashed through it, showing grass outside.

They hurried toward it, clambering over the piles of old bricks, Stepping out of the forest, they were next to a large tunnel entrance, surrounded by old military vehicles and the remains of long gone stalker camps. Slowly spreading out, they walked further, Ahead of them was a huge steel girder bridge, leading across a small river gorge to a second tunnel on the other side. The tops of buildings were visible in the distance, just behind the hill with the tunnel. An old watchtower guarded the bridge. Splitting off from the rest, Forester went round, and up into the tower, as he was about to enter-

A man walked out of the top of the tower, with pale skin and slicked back brown hair. He was dressed in a green Sunrise suit, and carried a long rifle slung behind his back. This must be Garry, the man who found the way from Yanov station to Pripyat, among other things.

"Hello there Forester, what brings you here to need me now? The emission?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. Let us go inside, and let my... companions rest here for a second."

Hiker watched them go into the top of the tower, letting Twilight and Applejack sit and talk together. Listening, he could here short phrases here and there,

"What sort of creatures? I hope no dangerous!"

"-well, the stalker that found them was trapped in a space bubble-"

"Teleported! What?"

"-that but he has the evidence to prove it."

"Pripyat, are you serious?"

"-the emission, the place has been deserted, Yar and his boys vanished, the Monolith sitting tight, minding their own business, hell I even found another-"

"Really?"

"Yeah, he seems trustworthy, if a bit detached."

Hiker walked away. Something was obviously wrong in the Zone to trouble an expert like this so much. Looking round, he saw Forester and Garry coming out, looking serious.

Forester came forwards first.

"I'd better be off, and distract all those nasty things in the forest following you. Any of you, feel free to visit me. You're all welcome."

As he wandered away, Garry spoke up next,

"Right, so, you are Twilight Sparkle and Applejack, is that right?"

"That's us."

"Good. We'll be heading through that tunnel in a second. Follow me, and wait next to the entrance for the moment. Hiker, with me."

He and Hiker slowly paced towards the small steel opening in the ruined road tunnel. Garry spoke under his breath,

"Get your shotgun out. I heard something in there when I came through a few hours ago, and it was following me all the way here."

Garry stepped inside first, quietly removing the scope from his VSS Vintorez, shouldering it. Hiker followed, pump-action at the ready. Inside, it was darker than night; Hiker thanked his night vision goggles, how Garry saw without them was a mystery. They treaded silently around the abandoned BTRs and trucks, looking for movement. As they rounded a toppled military jeep overlooking a small slope downwards, something scuffled the floor, echoing on the hard concrete. Both men tensed. Hiker looked round, straining to hear through his thick full-head mask, trying to see- WHAM!

He was knocked back by something slamming past him. Garry cried out, propelled backwards by a dark shape. Hiker snapped back up, spinning round to see Garry on the floor, pinned by a humanoid shape. He sprinted forwards, diving at it. The three of them went tumbling over, and Hiker landed on top of the beast, rolling onto its front. A Snork. It clawed at him, grabbing his face in its clawed hands, pulling him towards its face. Its blood-encrusted nails dug fruitlessly at the hard Perspex visor, scratching it. They wrestled and fought, one trying to escape, one trying to kill. The snork, as inhumanly strong as it was, couldn't shift the heavy man sprawled atop it, to get to less-armoured areas. Suddenly, Hiker was jerked backwards, as Garry slammed his rifle's barrel into the snork's baying mouth, unloading it into it' face. With every muffled thud of the suppressed rifle, parts of its head were turned to a red mist of gore and bone. Then, everything was quiet.

The silence was shattered.

"WHAT WAS THAT THING? WHY WOULD ANY PERSON DEGENERATE INTO SUCH ANIMAL?"

Twilight was getting hysterical, screaming and crying at the sight of the seemingly human snork try to eat both the stalkers, only to be brutally killed. Applejack was silent, horrified Garry was the first to respond,

"Twilight, that was a snork. That... abomination is worse than an animal, that was mercy compared to what things like that deserve-"

"JUST BECAUSE IT CAN'T CONTROL ITSELF, IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT DESERVED THAT BRUTALITY! THIS WHOLE WORLD ARE A BUNCH OF MINDLESS PREDTORS AND MORONIC BLOODTHIRSTY HUMANS. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHICH ONE LIKES KILLING MORE! AGH!"

She vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

The three looked at each other.

"What just happened?" asked Hiker.

Applejack spoke, still shocked.

"She overreacted; she has a habit o' doing that. I don't think this expedition was a good idea for her anyways, let alone any of us. She'll be over it in a couple of days- Oh horseapples! She's gone an' left me behind here! Stupid filly! Now I'm stuck here 'till she gets the courage to come get me. I'm not even meant to do the research; jus' help her live rough and protect her. What am I gonna do?"

''Follow me. As I said." Garry again. "We have to move now. I don't want any more mutants getting in here, or we won't get out alive. All we can do is continue up the tunnel."

He motioned to them to follow him, and he led them through the long, dark road tunnels to a small doorway, illuminated by a dim sodium lamp. Fiddling with some keys, he eventually forced it open. Ahead lay a thin, long passage, barely wide enough for one man. There were no lights.

"Hiker, take point. I'll stay at the back and lock up. Just go straight ahead, there's no side passages. You'll come to the exit in about five kilometers."

They started the arduous journey through the long dark of the only road to freedom.

* * *

Hiker stumbled, weary from the cramped march, face-first into the door. Recovering himself, he slammed the door open, revealing a small spiral staircase going up. The cold glow of the yellow lights stung his eyes, a welcome sight from the fuzzy night-vision he'd been using for the last hour and a half. Squeezing his body along a tight concrete corridor wasn't good for his body. He was about to ascend when Garry let out the first words since they'd set off.

'Wait here a second, you need to know some things before you go out there. First, Pripyat is the most dangerous area in the Zone, bar the NPP itself, as far as I can guess. There are things here that you just run from at the slightest suspicion of their existence. If I say to flee, just run, don't look back, get the fuck out of there.

Second, the emission a few days ago caused something major. All of the few groups of hardened veterans I knew that stayed here vanished overnight, without a trace. Many of those guys made me look like a rookie, and were kitted out like a tank with legs. That's bad. Of the Monolithians, large numbers vanished as well, and the rest are hiding, scared shitless by something. That's even worse. If the Monolith guys are scared, well, I don't even know what could happen. They don't even feel fear.

Thankfully, I picked up a hard-nut exoskeleton expert left out on his lonesome as a companion. Even stranger, this guy's ex-Monolith."

"What?" said Hiker incredulously. "How do you become an ex-Monolithian? All they are are bloodthirsty brainwashed vegetables."

"Ever meet Strider? He and his squad woke up with amnesia and Monolith gear, and an uncanny knack for survival. He was at Yanov a while back; he left with that Major Degtaryev to go to Pripyat. He had no idea what he'd done when he was brainwashed. Just woke up a crackshot sniper with only a Monolith SEVA and an SVU to his name. My guy's like that. Apparently he was with this scientist faction that went to the center a few years back, wore blue camo or something. Anyway, he's nearly 7 foot tall, in an exoskeleton with a special-forces rifle and a light machine gun. I'm not complaining."

Both Applejack and Hiker (under his visor) looked daunted.

"Enough chit-chat I'm afraid, it doesn't bode well to linger underground."

They ascended, into the corner of an old underground car-park. A giant of a man, sitting next to a small brazier in barrel looked up at them. His chest was covered in thick Kevlar plates, arms and legs rigged with steel struts and hydraulics and on his head he wore the distinctive, skeletal mask of the exoskeleton. Outside, through the opening, the grey, cloudy skies were pierced by the decaying, decrepit apartment blocks and towers of Pripyat. Muffled words came from the giant by the fire.

"Welcome to the Ghost City, friends."


	5. The Mind

Hiker looked around at the dark underground space they were in, and the cloudy sky of Pripyat outside, contemplating the bleakness of his situation. Applejack looked forlorn. For such a family-orientated pony, to be stranded in an inhospitable place like the Zone was loneliness of the highest kind. She missed the comforts of her farm and family, Applebloom's laughter, her brother's stoicism.

As Garry clambered out from the manhole after them, the giant doused the small fire, collecting his gear. Seeing the stalker and the pony staying put, his voice rumbled again,

"We can't stay here. It's not safe in places like this after dark."

Applejack looked up at the imposing man, towering over her. Not once had he shown any surprise at her appearance. How did he so calmly accept her, a pony, when all the others had been as shocked as she was at their alien appearances, and their strange mannerisms? There was obviously something off with him, something intangible.

She sighed. This world was far more harsh and cold than she had imagined from volunteering back in Ponyville, that even the man that had been transported there, this 'Hiker', seemed less of a monster and more of a creature of depth and feeling. Of Garry, she didn't know what to make. On one hand, he was forceful and definite, almost domineering. Yet to one as skilled at reading personalities as her, there was a easy-going, optimistic side to him crushed by the tremendous strain of trying to stay alive here that she could only imagine. As the other three in her party prepared to leave, she mused on just how much her life had been changed in the last two days.

They set off, up the ramp leading out of this dark concrete hole, up to the open air. She longed for it after her long underground march. As they approached the top, the giant rushed forward, pausing at the intersection with the road, on edge with his rifle ready. She and the others paused, watching him. He had clearly seen something. Slowly, he waved them up.

"Don't worry, the Zombified are nothing to worry about at this distance. We are safe."

As they came out, and followed his gaze, the sight of a gaggle of the brain-dead stalkers that were hit by the brain scorcher graced their eyes, far off many blocks down, milling around aimlessly. Hopefully they wouldn't shamble this way, Applejack had headache just thinking about it.

The movement of the stalkers around her jolted her from her thoughts, as they quickly jogged off, guided by Garry. Galloping after them was hard work on the uneven cracked road surface. All around her now the apartment blocks loomed over her, intimidating her with their size. The only buildings their size back home were the parts of Canterlot castle.

He led them this way and that, around buildings looted and sacked, past roads whirling and rippling with the strange gravitational anomalies Hiker had lectured her on this morning. Past withered, gnarled trees and bushes, and into the grounds of a building that resembled some kind of school, with rotting outdoor play-areas dotted around the grounds, and faded murals of small humans playing painted on the walls. Garry led them through the front door, along the corridors away from the roadside end of the building. After numerous passages, turns and a set of stairs, she found herself in a large classroom, with a fire-pit in the middle, and bedrolls and supplies dotted around it.

The three humans crashed down onto the soft mattresses, pulling off their webbing and ammunition, relaxing and murmuring amongst themselves. She certainly felt more relaxed than she had done so far in this world. No monsters or evil creatures nearby. Even if there were, nothing would find them in this rat-warren. Still, the headache from earlier was back, no longer imagined this time. It felt like a grinding and burning inside her skull. She massaged her tender forehead with a forehoof. The giant turned to her again, peering at her with his skull-faced mask.

"Are you okay, little thing?"

"Jus' a headache, nothing more."

"A headache?"

"It only just started up again, I felt it last time when we saw those zombie things."

"A headache only when we passed the zombies, that is not good."

He looked at Garry. Garry looked back, puzzled. Suddenly, the puzzled look turned to a concerned look. Something about her headache must be bad, it showed. The giant stood up abruptly.

"I'm just going to go and have a little look outside. I might be a short while, don't worry."

He marched off, out into the corridor. Garry still looked concerned. Hiker was just opening up a loaf of bread from his sack, passing around.

"What's gotten into him? All I said was that I had a headache. I'm a tough mare, I can handle it."

"I don't know. But it worries me. He knows things like avoiding anomalies instinctively, he can just wander around the Zone on autopilot safely. This must be one of those weird things he remembers from his time as a Monolithian."

"Anyway, is there any way I can help out with you guys? I feel like a dead weight not being able to carry any of your weapons or anything."

"That's true. Without a gun, you can't go alone in the Zone, it would mean almost certain death. Maybe we can get a technician to rig something up for you, but I don't really want to reveal you to other stalkers. There's no telling how they would react. Personally, at the moment it doesn't too much, as Pripyat seems pretty deserted at the moment. You never know when shit will hit the fan in the Zone. Things get nasty faster than you can scream for help around here."

"That's a mighty lot to think about, Mister Garry."

They sat there in silence, eating the bread Hiker had brought, listening to the sounds of the quiet evening of the ghost city. The calls of crows, the rustle of trees outside, the occasional howls and groans of far-away packs of dogs. One sound was new though, every so often groups of soft thumps, usually about a dozen each time, came from outside. What started as a few solitary sounds turned into an almost constant, fast-paced thudding, louder and sharper than before. Hiker turned restlessly.

"I'm going to go to the front of the building, see what the din is outside. I can't sleep, my head is just spinning and aching, its driving me insane."

He wandered off.

"Him too, that makes three of us with headaches. There's gotta be something causing this.," said Garry, looking at Applejack. As she opened her mouth to say something, a voice pierced through the evening.

"Shit! Garry, get here quick, its that damn giant of yours. He's a bloody tank in combat."

Garry snatched up his VSS, sprinting out the doorway, along the corridors, to the front face of the school. Hiker was standing there, clutching his shotgun helplessly. A fell sight confronted his eyes.

On the long, open courtyard in front of the school stood a horde of the brain-dead zombified, illuminated by each other's head-torches. Many of them were firing at some dark, large shape, closer to the school. Suddenly, the shape moved, and the silhouette of an exoskeleton was light by the flashing of a long machine-gun in his hands, spewing bullets into the zombies, cutting through them like a knife through tissue paper.

Garry dropped to a crouch, bringing up his sniper-rifle, and started firing off bursts at the horde, covering his mad ally. As the ranks began to thin however, the figure in the exoskeleton recoiled, bringing his hand to his head. With the other, he slowly brought the MG back to bear, now firing wildly at a single target, ignoring the encroaching zombies. As he fired, he was stunned a second time, almost thrown onto his knees. Resting the foregrip on one knee, clutching his helmet with the other, he continued firing, spraying at an unknown target. The stray bullets from the zombies' wildly inaccurate shots were starting to hit him now.

Now Garry could see his target, it by the gunfire. A horrible, misshaped, bloated body. A twisted, bulbous head. It was a Controller. He too ignored the zombies now, firing on full auto from the window at it emptying the magazine in an instant. The bullets hit it, stunning it for a second, stopping its wild, evil gestures. The exosuited giant leapt up, dropping his machine-gun, running at it, pulling a compact rifle from his side, and slamming into it head on. It was knocked back, and surprisingly quiet burst from the rifle annihilated its skull at point blank range.

Turning around, the brown-coloured exoskeleton bearer started to jog as fast as he could away from the remaining zombies, firing bursts of bullets at them, ducking behind an old van. Bullets pinged and ricocheted off its sides, trapping the lone stalker. Garry pulled away from his scope, his ammo almost gone. The action was cooling off now. In the dark, the zombies had lost sight of the stalker hiding in the wrecked van. If he made a run for it, however, he would be shredded, that was certain.

"What're we gonna do Garry?" said Applejack, by his side. She looked just as concerned as he felt; she was no use here, and she knew it.

"I don't know. There's not much we can do."

They stood there, man and pony, watching the lone figure, trapped wounded and helpless by his heroics. Not many could claim to have killed a controller, as their fierce telepathic attacks fried the brains of its victims, turning them into the zombies that often are found near them. They were notoriously resilient as well. Garry pulled his binoculars out, trying the make out the half visible stalker huddling inside the wreck of the van. He had a lightly-coloured camo on his arms and legs, and brown Kevlar plates on his chest. Monolith colours. It must be the giant. He had said he was going out to look for something. Looking around at the variety of zombies, he spotted all sorts of factions and stalkers. Rookie loners, betrayed by their inexperience, older zombies, relics of the long-dead brain scorcher, hulking master stalkers, with their exoskeletons and SPAS12s, obviously converted while trying to kill the controller. And there, a zombie wearing a SEVA suit, moving strangely for a-

"Wait, hellfire, that's Hiker." exclaimed Garry.

"Where?"

"Look, amongst the zombies."

He was walking slowly, holding his shotgun loosely in one hand, avoiding the spread-out zombies as he wandered nonchalantly among them. At a snail's pace, often stopping and pausing, he reached the giant in the van. He helped him to his feet Carefully guiding him, Hiker led the stalker through the horde, in the same way. Eventually, they were lost from sight, on the other side of the mass of zombies.

"How the... how did he just walk into them, and walk straight back out again?"

* * *

Some time later, Hiker and the giant emerged into the ruined school.

"Where the hell did you learn that trick Hiker? How is that even possible?"

Hiker grinned.

"It's an old trick good old Uncle Yar taught me back at Yanov, before he left for this hellhole. It's all in the body language and posture, my friend. That little trick's got me out a few sticky situations, it has."

They looked round at the man with him. The giant Monolithian was in bad shape, red stains from bullet holes dotted his exoskeleton, and the small bandages pressed onto them were doing almost nothing to cover them up. He crashed down to his bedroll, carefully removing the servomotors from his suit, discarding them, his breathing laboured. He gladly took a military-grade first aid kit from Hiker, first taking out some rubber gloves. Removing the exoskeleton's gauntlets, and taking a large swig of vodka, he applied the gloves. With each small red hole, he dipped two fingers in, groaning in pain, to remove the small lead pellets. After that, he took a brightly shining green and white artifact from his pack, and held it against each wound. Applejack watched in morbid curiosity. The rest were asleep by now. Soon, he retrieved another artifact, a lime green twist-shaped blob. He sat back to sleep, holding each close to his chest, gently puffing in and out of his mask. All was quiet and still.


	6. Eaten

_She was standing in a huge courtyard, with an imposing concrete structure the size of a mountain in front of her, with a large towering spire on the top. All around were smaller structures and buildings, linked by long, winding overhead pipes. She was surrounded by decaying corpses, left to rot in the abandoned wasteland. She turned her head, and saw her friends, the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony beckoning her towards them. As she approached, they slowly morphed, becoming brown and misshapen, with sharp fangs and rabid eyes. The mutant things snarled and leapt at her, only to vanish in puffs of smoke as a hooded figured walked into view, firing a gun. Turning to her, its face was a gasmask seeping blood through the filters and eyepieces. Everything became fuzzy and blurred, and the world faded into darkness._

* * *

Morning's rays shone through the barred windows of the classroom, waking Applejack from her slumber. She shook herself awake, opening her sticky eyes and pulling back her frazzled mane. Her sleep had been plagued by the Zone's mysterious nightmares. Looking around for her companions, she only saw Garry, wiping down his rifle, carefully assembling the various parts of the mechanism back together. He saw her staring, and stopped his work.

"The others left a few hours ago, to go find more supplies from some Monolith stash that Giant knows the location of. After last night, we're all low on ammo; I've only got this magazine left. I'm gonna take you somewhere safe, away from central Pripyat. It's where a nice old guy known as 'Uncle Yar' went missing. We're off to look for him there, see if we can find him and his guys. Get your stuff together; we'll leave in a second."

He quickly finished up, snapping together and screwing up all the parts as Applejack collected up her few possessions: her little anomaly detector, her food, and most importantly her beloved Stetson. Garry led her out the door, through the building, out into the city. It looked eerie in the perpetually cloudy landscape, with little sunlight shining onto decaying, mottled buildings. They walked in silence through the streets, skirting bushes and ruined cars, checking every corner, every passage for signs of movement. Anything that would roam Pripyat freely would be dangerous, fatally so.

After a few minutes, they appeared onto a long street, stretching as far as the eye could see in each direction into the mist of the city. Garry right turned here, looking down his scope to the southern end. He held a hand up to Applejack to stop. He took the scope from his rifle and offered it to her. Grasping it in a hoof, she looked through it: a large, lean beast, almost an oversized lion, with mottled brown hairless skin and a deformed, sneering muzzle. He leaned down to her, reattaching the scope.

"That is a Chimera. If it sees or smells us, we will die. I'm not even exaggerating; my VSS will barely scratch it. We'll have to detour through the old hospital, that building to the left, and hope to god we can get past it. Follow me, only move when I move, stay right behind me, and don't make a fucking sound."

Garry slowly slung his rifle over his shoulder, and started to lead her over to the hospital, round the nearest of the multi-storey buildings. It was obvious that he was scared, his hands were shaking. It wasn't like Garry to swear or get flustered.

They carefully made their way round the building, towards a derelict connecting corridor that linked the two hospital blocks. With every step they took, their hearts pounded faster and faster. The low grunts and snuffles were audible from almost a hundred yards away. They crouched up against the low wall of the corridor as Garry had another look through his binoculars. The chimera was pawing at the ground at the end of the next courtyard, clawing at the concrete. Motioning for her to move, Garry helped Applejack over the wall, following her into the semi-open walkway. At either end a musty darkness hung.

Weighing up each side, he went right, practically crawling on all fours to stay out of sight. Applejack crept behind him, glancing over at the beast in the distance with every step. As they made their way into the building, Garry seemed to relax, hurrying up the flights of stairs, leading her this way and that, past derelict wards, ruined storerooms, all dark and wholly uninviting, all the way onto the roof.

They moved quickly along the roof, to the far end, past another stairwell. From there, everything was clear. Ahead of them was a small area of grassy wasteland, next to the hospital courtyard. In the center, by a brick roundhouse was the Chimera. On the other side was a steel-framed rusty old building, with various openings in its sides. That was their goal. Garry sighed.

"Now we wait. There's no way across without it seeing us. We'll have to shack up here for the time being, and hope it moves on."

The two of them sat there on the roof of the hospital, an odd couple; a hard-working Apple family farm mare, and a tired, frayed young man, a legend in the Zone for his adventures, sitting in thought a stone's throw from certain death. As they lay on the roof together, the sun slowly inched across the azure sky, and soft winds blew wisps of cloud towards the horizon. All was quiet, save for the sniffing and panting of the huge beast below. Garry's PDA bleeped. The proximity PDA scanner showed two nearby stalkers approaching. Garry clambered up to the edge, looking down at the building across the way.

Two mercenaries were slowly walking out, weapons by their sides, one a standard grunt, in the typical grey jumpsuit and flak vest. The other had an exoskeleton, and a back harness full of guns of all sizes. They were oblivious to Garry, and the Chimera. Deep in conversation, they wandered towards the courtyard of the hospital, as the rasping breathing of the chimera turned to a growl. They spun round, swinging up their weapons as the chimera leapt. The nearest one fired a burst as it slammed into him, propelling them both into the ground. The chimera bit down immediately on the mercenary's head, enveloping it within its giant maw, gnawing and grinding on it. The second man, better equipped than his comrade, dropped his rifle in an instant, and pulled a compact black gun with a round drum underneath it. Cocking it forcefully, he turned to the monster.

A deafening sound, a crashing metallic roar like thunder, erupted from it as it poured shotgun shell after shotgun shell into the chimera's head and back, ripping the skin and mangling the flesh. The chimera backed away, hurt. The merc stepped forward, pressing the advantage. Then it turned on him, slashing at his front, knocking away the potent shotgun and tearing at his arms. It pulled its lithe body from the first merc, barrelling into the expert. It latched its jaws onto his arm, pulling him down. It stood at least two metres high, from foot to shoulder, and maybe even three and a half long. The merc, as large as he was, was dwarfed by the thing. Trying in vain to escape, the stalker writhed, only to have the chimera rip on his mutilated hand, tearing it off entirely. Screaming inhumanely, the mercenary shook and flailed as the chimera eviscerated him. Garry shut his eyes and clapped his hands to his ears, trying to block out the weakening screaming and ever more forceful sounds of ripping and tearing. Applejack just sat back away from the edge of the roof, watching Garry, listening to the gory sounds below agape.

Eventually, the murder stopped, and the snarls and growls faded into the distance. Garry still lay there, breathing heavily, in shock. Applejack walked over to him, laying a hoof on her shoulder, glancing down at whatever he was watching. She recoiled in shock. Down below, two corpses lay. One was blood-stained all over, headless and limbless, mostly eaten by the huge beast, with some vestige of his grey fatigues. The other was barely recognisable as a body, more of a shredded mass of Kevlar, metal servomotors and bones, all drenched with blood and gore. The pile wasn't even in a human shape; a severed foot lay next to the iconic skull-shaped mask of the exoskeleton.

Garry got up as she stood there, and gently guided her away from the horrible sight, down and out of the building, past the bodies, and past the steel-framed building, southwards to the Laundromat, the safe haven for all stalkers in Pripyat.

* * *

They stood outside the heavy iron doors of the Laundromat. Applejack hadn't said a word since she had seen the chimera. Garry wasn't in the highest spirits either. He turned to her,

"I'm sorry you had to see that earlier. I've only heard rumours of those beasts growing to that size. No one deserves to go out like those two did. Anyway, we're here. Look around, see if you can find any evidence of what happened to the guys here."

"W… what did happen?"

"They vanished without a trace."

Garry pushed open the doors. Inside, it was trashed, the old clutter of the military garrison there months ago was scattered around, and the rusty washing machines were piled up around the door, obviously some kind of barricade. They each went in different directions, Garry upstairs, Applejack into the large communal area ahead. She wandered past the few bunks and bedrolls lying around, into the workshop. All around here were tins of food, boxes of ammo, weapon parts, all sorts of junk. Whoever was here must have left in a hurry. She sifted through the supplies, looking for anything from the previous occupants.

"Hey, Applejack. Get up here quickly, you need to hear this."

She bolted upstairs, seeing Garry standing on the landing, by a window, looking forlorn. In front of him was a skeleton, wearing a tattered green flecktan Freedom suit.

"Garry, is that this Uncle Yar you told me about?"

"I hope not, we're about to find out."

He held up a small white device, a PDA. On it, an audio recording was showing. Garry hit play.

" _This is Leshiy. I'm here with Yar and Murk, in the Laundromat. Hell, this emission's been going for days, it's only just stopped. We aren't' going out any time soon. There's been this thumping on the door for hours now, started off as just a knock, getting louder and louder. We've barricaded the door. Whatever's out there isn't getting in here, that's for sure. We were looking through a window, but there was nothing there, just thin air .I don't how long we've got till it breaks through. I'm –" *Crashing sounds* (muffled voices) "Shit, what the fuck is that thing? Run Murk, get up here quick!" "Fire, fuck's sake, kill it!" *gunfire* "Upstairs! Yar, get a window open!" *More gunfire* "Aahh! My head, what the hell is that thing doing?" *Screaming* (distant) "It got Leshiy, get out, get out, quick Yar, jump!" *Rumbling and growling sounds*_

"It looks like Uncle Yar and this Murk escaped, still, I have no idea what could make three of Freedom's best run for their lives."

"That chimera? That looked fierce enough, don't y' think?"

"Not that, they would've recognised it. This must be something new…"


	7. Out of the Blue

Hiker and Giant were headed back after their raid on the Monolithians' supplies. It had gone well, for sure. Hiker was sporting a shiny new Groza, modified to fire 5.45 rounds, a rare find in the Zone, and a superb weapon despite it's ugly looks. Better than his old AK74, by a long way. The Giant on the other hand held at least one of almost every desirable gun found in the zone. An SVD, a pair of SVUs, G36Ks, VSS's, SIG 550s, even a replacement for the old MG that he lost in the battle with the controller. Two stood out though. A Bulldog 6 grenade launcher, capable of levelling small buildings, and a heavily modified FN F2000, the crown jewel of assault weapons ever seen in the Zone. He had tens of thousands of roubles of loot attached to his back. He had to borrow Hiker's Gravi just to be able to walk with it all. The pair of them could hold of a small army with them.

Still, even with the kit they carried, they were in real danger. Hauling the weapons was a slow and laborious business, attracting attention of mutants from all around. They'd had dogs, zombies and the occasional snork find them. They weren't too much of a problem in Pripyat's wide open streets. But if something worse ran into them, it would find there is such a thing as a free lunch. Two free lunches to be exact. They were hopeful though. Garry had contacted them, telling them to rendezvous at the apartment block by the Laundromat, with some cryptic message about some 'hidden threat'. They were close by now, the apartment block visible in the distance-

A blinding purple flash enveloped them, accompanied by a sharp cracking sound, and a gust of wind, blowing them back. Hiker pulled out his Groza, swinging it wildly looking for the source. As the afterimage in their retinas faded, all that was left was a huge column of purple gas, dense and still. Two figures, a man and a pony, ran out of the building, headed for the smoke.

"What the hell was that?" asked Hiker, panting and tense from the shock.

"Not natural. Nor caused by the zone." came the giant's reply.

"How do you know that? I'm sure that's something you've not seen before."

The bright purple clouds were barely starting to disperse, if at all. There was no sign of anything emerging.

"I don't think the Zone really does bright purple as a colour. Just my intuition."

The smoke started to roil and shift, and in another gust, it vanished, revealing its contents.

* * *

Standing there, in the middle of the street where the gas had enveloped, was a large group of ponies. Most were white or grey, wearing what appeared to be golden medieval plate armour. In the center however, stood six others, all different. One, the largest, was white in colour, with a long translucent floating mane and tail, recognised by Hiker as their demigod Princess, accompanied by that purple student of hers, Twilight Sparkle. What a stuck-up, traitorous shit she was for leaving Applejack abandoned quickly crossed the minds of both Garry and Hiker. The others were less familiar. One was the blue pegasus with rainbow hair, his guard. One was sheer white, bearing a stylised purple mane and a look that showed her disgust for the decrepitude of the city. Another was a soft yellow, with a light pink mane. She look more frightened than a rookie being told about bloodsuckers. The oddest perhaps was bright pink all over, literally jumping around in ecstatic joy.

There was silence on the part of the humans. They stood there, in pure shock at the sight before them. No one moved, both sides just stared at each other, both sides experiencing the same mixture of fear, shock, anxiety, rage and curiosity that had come from the invasion of their homeland.

Suddenly Applejack galloped towards the other ponies, enveloped in a group hug by the multichromatic group of five, sharing their friendship once more. The white and pink ones were crying, the rainbow one was sharing a joke with Applejack, before Twilight turned to the farm-pony. The emotional reunion carried on for several minutes. Over the chatter, the words:

"Thank the Princess you've survived the clutches of those barbarian savages. Once I realised just how cruel they were I had to..."

floated into earshot of Hiker, Garry and Giant, now reunited. Above the hubbub of her ponies, the Princess stood there, looking balefully at the three humans, with a mixture of disapproval and sadness conflicting on her face. All the while, the military ponies stood to attention, guarding the others with fierce determination.

The three stalkers turned to each other.

"What the fuck was that? Seriously, Hiker, explain this. Forester left them out when he told me about the ponies."

"Well, the big one, their Princess, is a godlike figure to them. Apparently, she is quite literally the sun incarnate. When I was stuck over there, was the one that told me I'd have to take Twilight and Applejack over here. I guess she wasn't just abandoning them to die here after all."

"Where do the rest come into it then?" said Giant, who was taking the appearance of talking horses surprisingly well.

"Really, I have no idea. The soldiers look pretty ineffectual anyway."

"What do we do? If they don't stop their little get together soon, all hell's gonna break loose all over us. Every single living thing within a mile is going to beeline for us here."

"Either get the hell out, or try to talk to them. Personally, I prefer the former. I've had enough with their strange Princess and pointless pacifism, but-"

Both Garry and Hiker looked at Giant. He stood like a rock facing north, pointing to the sky.

"The Zone does not like intrusions. They must have angered it. We have to go. So do they, if they wish to live."

Red clouds were becoming visible now, above the outline of the NPP, faintly glowing.

"Damn, where the hell do we go? The Laundromat?" asked Hiker.

"We'll have to if we want to save the ponies, though it obviously wasn't safe for the Freedomers. It's the only place nearby that'll fit everyone."

"But do we help them? Maybe their magic can protect them?"

Hiker and Garry hurriedly debated the point, until the normally silent giant intervened. They turned to him. Overhead, the red clouds were beginning to move towards them, darkening the sky.

"Go, seek refuge in the Laundromat, or wherever you wish. I shall sort out this mess with those 'ponies'."

Garry looked like he was about to make a point, then, stopped and motioned for him and Hiker to leave. They jogged off, disappearing through one of the large apartments in the direction of the Laundromat without a backward look.

* * *

Giant turned toward the gathering of alien creatures before him. All he knew was that they were known as ponies, and the large white one was their Princess. He dropped his copious loot inside a ruined car, and walked toward them slowly, hands in the air. As he approached, the guarding soldier-ponies stiffened. Giant chuckled to himself. None of them were even armed. What good did they think they could do against a 120 kilo man reinforced by steel and Kevlar. They barely reached his waist. As he came within a few feet, they parted, allowing him through. The Princess stood before him, looking perplexed.

"What are you, strange machine? What do you want? We mean you no harm."

Giant laughed.

"I am no machine. I come to tell you that those red storm clouds carry extreme levels of radioactive dust. When they reach us, anyone outside or in an exposed location will be simultaneously fried and degraded at a cellular level. Any human or animal from this place will be killed in less than the time it has taken me to tell you this."  
"WHAT!" screamed both the pink and white ponies in unison, trying to hide behind the rest, all of whom looked terrified beyond belief.

"Really?" asked the Princess.

"Yes. Do some of the fancy magic the others told me you had, or follow me if you wish to live."

The large white pony looked torn between distrust and concern, uncertain whether to trust the massive brown and grey thing covered in metal before her.

"Lead on."

They followed him along the streets of Pripyat, in one long column, all the ponies hanging back from the massive mechanical stalker. As they walked, the light became redder and redder, occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning. Giant's Geiger counter was already showing above normal levels. As he rounded another building, the Laundromat came into view. Ahead, a stalker, in a large camouflaged suit ran to the door and sprinted in, oblivious to the unorthodox group behind him. Giant turned. The ponies were hurrying now, trotting faster and faster.

"There's the place, where the other figure just entered. There you will be safe."

As they passed him, most muttered thanks under their breath, avoiding his gaze. He gave the area a last look over. The city looked even more sinister under the blood red light emanating from the sky. He was still a way from the building when the first ponies entered the building, a group of soldiers. As they opened the double doors, he heard shouting. He turned.

Suddenly gunfire erupted from inside, cutting down those by the door. In an instant, other soldiers threw up a magical shield, stopping the continuing hail of bullets. Magical blasts retaliated, and the armoured ponies galloped inside the building, leaving the other seven huddled by the doorway. He looked up, and the sky was darkening now. He had maybe less than 20 seconds left. He screamed at the remaining ponies,

"GET INSIDE!"

He turned to the building he was next to, running to a window, and vaulting inside. The very air was rumbling now. Pulling out his compact rifle from his side, he ran further into the building, turning into a long hallway. Heading down it as his radiation detector started to spike, he pulled himself down below the stairwell. He would certainly be fine here. Of the others, he had no idea. Did the men inside slaughter the ponies? Or visa-versa? He had no way of knowing for the next hour until the emission cleared. Would there be anything to back to?

* * *

Hiker struggled against his magical bonds. Just as a well-equipped stalker calling himself Murk had entered, and had been trying to explain to Garry what happened to him over the last few weeks, the doors were flung open, revealing the armoured ponies, intent on coming in. Seeing them, Murk had freaked out, spraying them with his F2000, killing half a dozen in less than three seconds. Before he could see what the hell was happening, magical discharges came flying into the room, taking out Murk and Garry. He bolted, running up the stairs onto the landing, as a flash of purpled exploded in front of him, expelling Twilight directly before him. Her horn had flashed, throwing him against the wall. Magical tethers suddenly wrapped themselves around his arms and legs, holding him there and gagging him. Twilight had disappeared downstairs. He was left alone.

* * *

He had been restrained for hours now. Downstairs, he heard sounds of talking, indistinct and muffled. Hopefully Garry and Murk were still alive after they got hit. He didn't fancy being at the ponies' mercy on his own.

* * *

Below him, the Elements of Harmony sat together, looking forlorn. This world was a far cry from peaceful Equestria and serene Ponyville. Twilight broke the silence first,

"Applejack, what happened to you when you were with these creatures? Did they say had planned this?"

"No, Twi, as a matter of fact, they didn't. They were just trying to look after themselves and find their missing friends in this evil place. Anyways, the one who attacked us had never seen a pony before, accordin' to Garry, and from the look on that guy's face. I'm inclined to believe him."

"True, but surely this must have been premeditated in some way. Any sane pony doesn't just kill things at first sight. I'm highly sceptical that anything would even consider such a thing."

"Twilight, you've seen this world with your own eyes, you've seen a few of the kind of horrors this place has, and trust me there are things much, much worse than that lone beast they killed."

"But Applejack, they killed it! Shot it dead in cold blood!" How can you justify that?"

"From what things I've seen Twi, quite easily, so stop with your moral high-ground. These guys just do what they have to do, and that means kill any strange creatures before they horribly rip you to shreds, eat you alive or fry the brains inside your head! "

Twilight sat in silence, stunned. Fluttershy and Rarity were lost for words, unable to comprehend the dark, brutal nature of the Zone. Even Pinkie and Rainbow looked unhappy and depressed, without their usual cheer or bravado. Again, silence reigned.

It stayed that way until Princess Celestia entered.

"Princess, what's going on? Are we leaving this foul place? What are we doing with the prisoners?"

"Calm, Twilight Sparkle, I will answer your questions soon enough. We are apparently in some special land in their world called 'the Zone'. According to them this dreadful place was created when a nuclear power plant they had exploded, covering the surrounding area in radioactive fallout, to such an extent that it mutated the creatures and cause all sorts of strange phenomena. The rest of the world is apparently highly civilised, without almost all of the dangerous creatures that are found in this place. They are massively more technologically advanced than us, almost beyond the comprehension of magic. Also, this world is completely devoid of ambient and natural magic."

"What? No magic whatsoever?"

"That is true Twilight. In this world, our magic will not replenish as it does in Equestria. Casting spells will be difficult for you and Rarity, and I assume the powers of the other types of ponies will be severely diminished. We must be careful using spells, considering that magic is our only way home."

"How can they survive then. Things I've seen can't be done without magic."

"They make up for it with their technology. They are maybe 100 years ahead of is with it, with a few exceptions, and maybe even 200 years ahead in scientific progress. Take for instance the little devices they all carry around with them. They use electricity conducted in special ways to perform all sorts of logical operations, and power the interactive lit-up display on them, allowing them to send data through thin air, and store information on them even when they aren't powered at all. The ones carried by these few have parts in them that store electricity, which is taken from sunlight converted into use for them by another gadget they carry. Such things are now even considered normal for them, apparently most of their people have one.

I am undecided whether to press on further into this world, and try to learn from this race, or to retreat back to Equestria, and disregard this place, and it's people, with their often violent and underhand ways, and let my little ponies find out about science and technology for themselves. I would dearly like to hear all your views on it, for you six do bear the Elements of Harmony, and your experiences learning the lessons of friendship may let you understand them better."

"Well, as you say Princess, the humans are a violent race, naturally moreso than ponies, meaning that we would be in a dangerous position trying to negotiate with them, especially since they are divided into factions across their world, all of which have agendas and machinations, and who knows what will happen if we destabilise the balance of power."

"That is true Twilight. I'm that treading carefully may be an understatement where they are concerned."

"Also, Princess, if I may, these humans, after being stuck with them for a few days, it's often not the humans that create the violence, but their situation. I think that tha' poor guy who shot at us might'a just been scared, reacting on instinct, not out of spite at all. All the guys who I came across seemed decent at heart, if with their own flaws."

The Princess looked at her, then back at Twilight.

"Is there anything else you learned from that creature's description of his world that might help?"

"Well, one thing does stand out Princess. He said that war, conflict and hardship acted as a catalyst for invention and progress. We have very little of that, thankfully, but I wonder if we can make any significant progress in that direction without urgent need to. It would certainly take a few centuries, if not longer, comparing our civilization to theirs.

On the other hand, trying to access their technology and learning properly would mean total integration, both ways. We would eventually have humans and ponies living on both worlds, no matter how much we resist, if we go down that path. Who knows what could happen if both races were linked permanently? From the evidence, it could either go brilliantly, and profit both sides, or cause unthinkable amounts of suffering. There is no way of telling which. That worries me lots."

"So what do we do? I know this decision needs more time to think it over, and we need more conclusive information. What I propose is this: most of us return to Equestria, since this place is obviously unsafe. We'll take our three prisoners with us as well, to see of they can tell us anything else useful.

However, we will also need to gather more information on the world outside of this 'Zone'. There I am unsure what course of action we should pursue."

Pinkie Pie nearly rocketed into the air.

"You could turn us into these human things. That would be so totally awesomeliciously amazing! Don't you agree Twilight?"

"Well, uh,"

"That, my dearest Pinkie Pie, is a possibility. We would need to return to Equestria to ensure a safe transformation, and also find a way for you to explore the wider world."

"Princess, I think we would be discovered fairly quickly considering how little we know about human customs and lives. This place is apparently a lawless barely controlled by any of the 'countries' that the human Hiker told me about. Paradoxically, this might be the only place to be able to observe this world without being observed ourselves. As much as it might be dangerous, if we go outside this place, there'll be no turning back."

"Hmm, what you say has merit. Excellent. We have a plan finally. We'll return to Equestria for the moment, and reconsider our position. I shall attempt to transform a few willing ponies, any of you if you wish, into these humans. From there, we'll explore this area known as the Zone, and try to learn what we can of the human race."


End file.
